Last month I knit this sweater for Compatto. It’s from the book Knitting for Him by Martin Storey and Wendy Baker. I used Rowan instead of their recommended yarn, and it worked fine. However, I do have some comments regarding the pattern. First off, the style isn’t good for most young people. In other colors (actually the cool grey and chartreuse used in the book does make it look much more fashionable) it can have a different feeling, but the fit is what is of issue for me. I found that it actually ran a little big. Depicted here in a small would probably fit what I may consider a medium, although perhaps on the smaller end of that. Any skinny guy wouldn’t look good in their small size. The proportions felt a little off to me as well. It’s a bit short, so the whole thing is kind of square. Again, fine for a medium, but anyone who is too tall or too thin would need some fine tuning if this pattern was used. Still, it was easy, although I found the ribbing a little mindless.

I did have a fun time with the details. The small red stripe between the brown and tan is a nice touch, and the pockets were fun to make. You got to knit pocket flaps and then insert them into the fabric of the two fronts as you went, then go back and add the contrast band. I also enjoy finishing, so it was fun to sew those down.

I bought my buttons at F & S in west LA, which is an awesome emporium of fabrics and notions. This was the only place that could match the strangely difficult brown color, although the buttons (five of them) ran at two bucks per, which was a wee bit annoying. Still, it’s pretty much a textile wonderland.